‘No green light’ given for fracking in county

Lincolnshire County Council is the Planning Authority to consider requests for mineral extraction.

Coun Colin Davie, executive member for planning at the authority insisted the licences were not a ‘green light’ for fracking in the county.

He said: “Any developer wishing to explore for oil or gas will still need to apply for planning permission and environmental permits. Local communities will have a chance to have their say as part of that planning process.

“If gas or oil deposits are found, the developer would then need to apply for planning permission again both for further appraisal and extraction, which may be done using conventional methods as opposed to fracking.”

He added that the geology of the areas where licences have been granted ‘suggests that the majority are unlikely to have shale gas deposits, so fracking seems unlikely’.

“The new licences would indicate that the locations in Lincolnshire where it looks likely that shale does exist is in the Marton and Torksey areas,” he said.